Far
from the headlines, Israeli and Palestinian scientists have
spent the past four years discussing how to improve the lot
of Palestinian children. With the only teaching aid in most
schools a blackboard, Palestinian teachers are ill-equipped
to help their pupils demystify science. This state of affairs
would sadden any scientist. It has spurred this group to act.

Realizing
it would be financially unfeasible to equip every Palestinian
school with a laboratory, the Al Quds University in East Jerusalem
and Bloomfield Science Museum in West Jerusalem imagined an
Interactive Science Centre hosted by the former institution
and supported by the latter. The centre would enrich the Palestinian
science programme by giving children the opportunity to observe
natural phenomena and conduct experiments of their own and,
at the same time, encourage a vocation for science. The centre
could showcase Palestinian research and industry and, by opening
its doors to the general public, would foster science popularization.

The
project quickly captured the imagination of other partners,
including the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies (ACBP)
in Israel, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University
Federico II in Naples (Italy). All took part in a meeting
organized by UNESCO, the European Collaborative for Science,
Industry and Technology Exhibitions and the Città della Scienza
in Naples last June to carry the project forward. Now the
partners are about to take a travelling science exhibition
on the road to build public awareness and raise funds to complement
those already donated to the centre by the ACBP, European
Union and Napolitan Region.

Talk
is cheap. We can talk about the virtues of peace until we
are hoarse; it doesn’t cost anything and it makes us feel
good. But that is not peace-building. Peace-building means
translating words into deeds.

SESAME
is a word. But it is above all a deed. Or rather, a succession
of deeds: there are the scientists from within and beyond
the Middle East who have spent the past six years drumming
up support for a research centre of international standing
for the Middle East by the name of SESAME; there is UNESCO,
which has acted as mentor; and Germany, donor of the ‘centrepiece’,
a synchrotron light source; there is Jordan, which has agreed
to host the SESAME centre, currently under construction; and
there are Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan,
the Palestinian Authority, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates
who have all agreed to share the centre. Deeds, not words.

World
Science Day for Peace and Development comes around again on
10 November. It will be an occasion for all of us to ask what
we, as scientists, can do to make a difference.